


Desert Kite

by CandidCatmint



Series: All Seeing Iris [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Amputation, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Canon-Typical Violence, Deadeye is supernatural, Gaslighting, Gen, Horror, Other, Reincarnation, Supernatural Elements, but close enough for mccree, lets be real: huge assholes, mcree is a twink/twunk and very gay, moira is also very very gay, not quite truesight, the deadlock gang are kinda assholes, these headcanons got out of hand, this entire series? gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 07:02:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14971640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CandidCatmint/pseuds/CandidCatmint
Summary: ‘The Desert Beyond’ sounds cheesy as fuck, but Jesse supposes he’s always been kid of a cheesy guy, considering the cowboy deal and all- and still, what else should he call this place, this liminal desert in a perpetual night filled with strange, unfamiliar stars?Mccree’s mother believed in magic til the day she died, and frankly after what he’s seen and found in the desert he’s in line to believe her. He’d never seen or heard much of Deadeye’s namesake in the time he’d had it, but once in the body field where they’d died they’d told him he’d found himself a desert kite, and to be careful not to be the one trapped in it.He’d not been sure what they’d meant at the time.[this is a wip/preview of a much larger work, but i am low on energy so bear with me and my slow updates]





	Desert Kite

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time ever posting any of my written works to any platform, so bear with me. My main reason for posting this is to actually get at least SOME of it out there before my lack of energy relegates it to the unfinished wip folder of my computer, and hopefully maybe get some encouragement to boost my mood. 
> 
> This chapter will likely be moved to a later chapter after i write more, but will be called 'in medias res' to make things easier to find. That said, keep in mind that this work (& other works in this series), for a long while, may be a series of somewhat disconnected snippets & flashes of a larger narrative. Thanks for reading!

Jesse near dragged himself up to the mouth of the cave and leaned heavily on the cool stone, nearly passing out right there dead on his feet from the exhaustion of walking three days no sleep across the desert. his wrist still hurt from where it'd been roughly handcuffed to the post, and he swatted lazily at the half-cuff still hanging there. He’d have to get Jackson to it off in the morning.

He used his good arm to bang roughly on the door a few times, croaking out a rough 'Mccree!' so whoever was on watch wouldn't shoot his ass, and when the rusted, paint-flaked metal opened he stumbled inside before making a beeline for the iced jug already sitting on the nearby wetbar.

Someone- he assumed whoever had been guarding the door- followed behind him to pat his back as he chugged as much water as he could without choking or throwing up. Whoever it was chuckled as he took a bad swig, coughing a bit, and belatedly he recognized the laugh as belonging to Markus.

Jesse gave him the most tired, dehydrated glare he could muster from under his hat, grumbling out a 'jackass' as he leaned heavily- practically laying- on the bar counter.

"'his hazin' rituals s'stupid anyhow. all it does 's make m' to tired t'shoot. an' aint i been in long enough t' skip em anyways?" Jesse frowned at how slurred his words sounded, rubbing his throat with his good hand while using the other to prop himself up on the counter as he turned around to face his fellow Deadlock member.

Markus, on his part, flashed a toothy smile as he pulled out a pack of cigs to offer one out, along with a fancily-engraved metal flip lighter- probably stolen from the last job- and Jesse let out a slurred 'thanks' as he brought it to his mouth.

"Well, hell, Mccree, you'se still the youngest after all. plus, how else are we gonna get ya to quit keepin talkin crazy bout shit without a lil 'sun therapy'?" Markus let out a short, clipped laugh, pulling his own cigarette into his mouth for a long drag, and Jesse's eyes narrowed. How much fucking horseshit was he gonna keep getting for the weird shit he saw in the desert, even though it kept saving their assses? assholes.

He took a deep breath of smoke as he leaned back across the counter, stretching his arms and yawning widely, and when he stood back up off the bar his footing slipped slightly, causing him to stumble forward for a few seconds before Markus's hands reached out to help him right himself with a chucked 'careful there!', and he rubbed the back if his neck, grimacing at the sweat and sand there. God, hed need a long shower later too. maybe he could sneak out back to the ranch and take a bubble bath with the well-water later in the week...? nah, everyone would still be watching him after this last stunt with the tinder & tent peg (even though he was right, goddamnit, he was right and he’d /told/ them those things around the camp at night had had hands and stood on their hind legs to laugh at them. fuckin smug-ass coyote-looking hyena-laughing assholes-), and the boss would probably have a bunch of jobs lined up to make up for not having him for the three days he was out. ugh. Deadlock might pay the bills but fuck if it wasnt as annoying as hell to keep gettin stuck out in the middle of goddamn nowhere. Maybe he could leave in a week or so and just. 'get lost in the desert' for a month or two. or three. maybeee make it an even six, to match the bullets in his gun. aw hell though, how’d he get cigarettes in the meantime-

he tripped over something then, stumbling for a few seconds before he righted himself, and when he looked back in confusion as to what in the hell'd he'd tripped up on he realized it was the bunkroom threshold. had he just really walked on full autopilot right to his bed? /aw shit/, he'd been talking with Markus before that too. damn if he wasnt all sortsa out of it right now. he hoped Markus would just chalk it up to exhaustion and not bring it up to the rest of the gang, not wanting another round 'mccrazy' jabs to start up /right/ when hed just got back. assholes.

He nearly passed out as soon as he sat down, the relative softness of the shitty mattress instantly pulling after such a long trek, but resisted the urge long enough to check there wasn’t anything hidden in his sheets again before calling out to the other Deadlock- "oi, Markus, m' headin t' sleep, m' tired enough that if i stayed up any longer theyed be callin' me deadfeet insteada deadeye, aighht?" Markus replied with something that sounded like some sorta jab and mcree slureed out a quick 'g'niht asshole' before falling back to pass out into what he hoped was a long and dreamless sleep.  
  
It was neither.

꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳

He isn’t in the bone field this time, instead he’s woken up beneath the old tree his mother calls her grave, and when he looks up to check what the stars are like this time, it’s massive boughs- once dead, dried, and twisted- are filled with soft leaves and weighed down by fruit. He’s never seen anything like it, and although he knows not to wat anything in the desert beyond he lets is temptation to pocket a fruit- a strange, dark thing, akin to a pomegranate in shape and shimmering red beneath the black- and inspect it as he walks.

Jesse knows ‘The Desert Beyond’ sounds cheesy as fuck, but supposes he’s always been kid of a cheesy guy, considering the special interest in cowboys & old westerns and all- and still, what else should he call this place, this liminal desert in a perpetual night filled with strange, unfamiliar stars? where dead cowboys roamed, where shadows smiled and pranced, where even the moon could shift and blink at you? It was beautiful and terrifying, and as he walked along the sparkling, almost black sands of the riverbed that used to run through his ranch, he thought about how he should really write some sorta poetry about this place, one day, if he could get the right words for it. He wasn’t sure if he ever could, really, but he should try, if for nothing else to someday let someone else in on its secrets.

The fruit was ore tempting than it should be. He knew, at the back of his mind, that this was one of the ways things tricked you into staying- sweet fruits that weighed heavy in your palm and drew the eye- but he couldn’t help but think the fact that it was his mothers tree meant it was _supposed_ to be his, supposed to mean something. Wondered if eating it would tie him to this place in a way that’d make him shimmery and laughing too. It-

it was tempting.

no more jabs. no more ‘sun therapy’. no more bodies beneath his boots, or blood his hands, or stolen weapons smuggled away for money to eat with- no more vomited blood & brass- no more hazings or dares or looking over his shoulders or sleepless nights or-

his teeth scraped against the fruits poisonous flesh, and although the brief taste of its juice had a strange sweet, taste that reminded him of his mother’s favorite sweet tea, he brought it away from his mouth. temptation or no, he’d promised to live out his days alive on Earth, not die in the desert before his time. he had things to do, places to see. depts to pay. the desert would have to fight to claim him.

he looked up from his parcel to find himself in a field of desert wildflowers and buzzing fireflies, stars for once recognizable, the only sign of inhabitance being a bottle of whisky and few carefully stacked glasses sitting where the trunk of a long-dead tree met an old, disused wooden fence. He thought he might have accidently stumbled into a new area at first, before belatedly recognizing the dead tree & fence as the same one that marked Deadeyes territory, to his surprise. He could barely recognize the place now that it was was barren of it’s usual bodies, detritus, and harsh noon heat haze. Instead of the harsh noise of a gunfight or the groans of the dying, the only sound he could hear was the rustling of the wind and the chirping of desert crickets, and something in the distance- it might have sounded like a cicada, once, but now it was more like some sort of windchime.

it was, in all, strangely peaceful for a place so usually soaked in the blood of the dying and dead, and he had trouble reconciling the two in his mind as the same place, wondering over to the waking usual spot beneath the dead tree post to sit and watch the fireflies buzz past. something settled up next to him as he followed the ripple of the meadow in the breeze, and in his peripheral he saw the shifting visage of the Deadeye Gunslinger in his peripheral. they sat in silence for a long time, and Jesse looked guiltily at the fruit still in his hand. he wondered if Deadeye would have felt cheated, if he’d avoided joining them later on by taking the fruit instead, but as he was about to open his mouth to apologize they offered up a shot-glass full of amber to him with their covered arm. he tipped his hat to them, taking the drink, and they sat there for a while in comfortable silence.

“…this what it’s like, when the fighting’s done?” Deadeye’s shifting gaze perked up from their glass, and they let out a short, halfhearted laugh in heir multitude of tones, downing the rest of their drink before turning themselves to the field that was usually most heavily bodied.

“nah, this? this’ what ‘s like before the fightin’, kid.” ah. so, this must be something like the night before everything went to shit. he thought about how many of those wildflowers must get crushed, torn, and burnt in the ensuing gunfight, and frowned. this place seemed less like a respite and more like a melancholic memory, now, and it made him nostalgic for the ranch again, thinking of his mom’s tree. at that, he suddenly recalled the fruit still in his lap and picked it up to look at its glimmering flesh. spying Deadeyes gaze shifting between him and the fruit from the side, he reached out and offered it to his companion.

“split it?” he recognized, still, that it was a probable trick, a way to snare him in, but the potential for it meaning something else made him want to at least give his companion a choice to leave the body field behind them. Deadeye, on their part, appeared trough shifting faces to bear a ghost of a smile at him, giving a light laugh and shaking their head while they gently lowered Jesse’s fruit-bearing hand to the ground.

“lotta ways outa the desert kid. this aint mine.” Jesse frowned, but understood, letting the fruit roll off his hand and onto the ground below, its momentum only stopped by the half-full whisky bottle in front of it. “but hey- thanks for offering.” Deadeye grinned, leaning lazily against the tree, and turned their eyes back to the fireflies gracing the meadow in front of them. Jesse, on his part, joined suit, leaning against the tree so his arm just barely brushed Deadeye’s.  
  
they laid like that for a long while, watching the fireflies and drinking in the cool desert breeze, but then Deadeye sat up straighter and licked their lips in a way Jesse could only describe as nervous, and he began to straighten up in alarm too for a moment before Deadeye put their arm over his chest to stop him.

they sat in silence for a few moments, Deadeye apparently considering their next words, for one not already prepared in what they were about to say, and Jesse began to anxiously wonder if he hadn’t somehow found himself trapped or dead or disowned or some other nonsense in the time between returning to base and falling asleep. Deadeye swatted at him, apparently feeling his anxiety, and licked their shifting lips again before they spoke.

“Kid, listen- the desert ain’t the only thing tha’s gotta claim on ya, but it’s certainly the most proactive ‘n tryin’ t’ keep ya’. It’s tryin’ to get ya’ to pick it before another option shows ‘tself, and i know I shouldn’t be tryin to tell yall what to do w’ yer time on this Earth, but…”

۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞ ۞

**Author's Note:**

> This is all i have written so far, due to low energy making it difficult to get the rest of the words. Thanks for supporting me ♥!


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